![]() | Feature: Physical Education
in Early Childhood | No.51 September 2007 |
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Abstract
Motor activity plays an important role in development
promotion and education in early childhood, especially in kindergarten
settings. The quality and quantity of physical education in kindergarten
depends mainly on the qualifications of kindergarten teachers. In Germany,
the initial training of kindergarten teachers originally took place at
vocational schools on a non-collegiate level. With regard to further training,
which has an important impact on the physical education qualification
of kindergarten teachers, it has been lacking overall coordination during
the past. Currently in Germany, kindergarten teachers’ initial and
further training are experiencing a period of change. Among many changes,
precursor academic study courses have been invented and kindergarten curricula
have been developed. Furthermore, contemporary concepts of early years’
physical education and thereof derived qualification objectives of kindergarten
teachers, as well as appropriate didactic concepts, are taken more and
more into consideration in both initial and further training. With these
changes taking place at the moment, an opportunity exists to coordinate
all levels of kindergarten teacher’s education and training and
to establish physical education adequately in the field of early years’
education.
Introduction
Since the publication of the OECD studies “PISA”
and “Starting Strong“ (cf. OECD, 2004a; OECD, 2004b) regarding
the education systems in different countries, there is ongoing discussion
on how to improve early childhood education and care. As the German education
system turned out to have some deficits, particularly in terms of early
childhood education, several ideas for improvement have been discussed
by politicians. In this regard, experts warn of reducing education to
intellectual promotion and cognitive performance and the associated transfer
of approaches from school to kindergarten. “Learning, thinking and
creativity do not only take place within the brain but also require involvement
of the body, the senses and emotions.” (Zimmer, 2004a, p.11). Motor
activity plays an important role within early years education processes
and therefore must be considered as a principle of development. To take
the importance of motor activity in kindergarten into consideration, it
is crucial to pay regard to the qualifications of kindergarten teachers
in terms of physical education.
In this contribution, contemporary concepts of early
years’ physical education are briefly outlined. The foundation of
objectives of kindergarten teacher qualification and the didactics of
training are also deduced. Subsequently, the system of education and training
of kindergarten teachers in the field of physical education in Germany
is discussed with respect to this background. Current changes occurring
within this system as well as future perspectives are presented at the
end.
Concepts of Early Years Physical Education
Contemporary early years pedagogy assumes that
children are active, competent and able to educate themselves since birth
(cf. Gopnik, Kuhl & Meltzoff, 1999). For their self-education, they
need a social and physical surrounding that provides on the one hand safety
and support and on the other hand freedom for autonomy and self-acting
(cf. Bredekamp & Copple, 1997). This concept provides the pedagogic
foundation of contemporary early years’ physical education concepts.
These concepts pursue the following goals, which are derived from different
perspectives:
To realise these goals, physical education concepts
aim to provide kindergarten children with both unrestricted opportunities
for motor activity and instructed physical education. The degree of utilisation
of daily opportunities for unrestricted motor activity depends on day-care
facilities’ interior and exterior design and equipment, availability
of time during daily routine, and the kindergarten teachers’ attitude
towards motor activity. For instructed physical education, different approaches
with different emphasis on the above-named goals exists. Within these
approaches, the so called “open physical education” (Offene
Bewegungserziehung) is judged by experts in Germany as very suitable for
the early years in terms of developmentally appropriate physical education
and therefore very popular (cf. Hunger, 2001; Krüger, 1998; Prohl
& Seewald, 1998). It is based on psychomotor approaches which focus
on the close interconnection of perception, experience and action. The
aim is to obtain a holistic education through motor activity, by allowing
the child to intensely deal with its body, the physical and social surrounding
(cf. Naville, 2005; Zimmer, 2004b).
Qualification Objectives of Kindergarten Teachers
The training of educational staff always requires
the consideration of both educational levels: the direct education of
the staff and the indirect education of the children. Hence, when formulating
qualification objectives of kindergarten teachers, one has to keep in
mind the goals, concepts and conditions of motor activity in children,
as briefly outlined above.
The general qualification objective is global vocational
competency in action-taking (Straka, 2001). In terms of physical education,
this means that kindergarten teachers need to comprehend the importance
of motor activity and need to be able to act accordingly (cf. Zimmer,
2004b). This requires the development of adequate knowledge, comprehension
and skills. Specified qualification objectives can be derived from the
physical education goals in kindergarten mentioned above. Firstly, kindergarten
teachers need to acquire theoretical background knowledge about motor
development and the importance of motor activity in childhood (e.g. from
an anthropological, developmental psychological, social-ecological, health
pedagogical point of view). In addition, pedagogical and conceptual background
knowledge about contemporary developmentally appropriate early years physical
education is essential (cf. Zimmer, 2004b). Secondly, it is necessary
to develop comprehension of underlying causal relationships and complex
processes within the holistic development of children, including physical
and motor development, as well as the complex interrelationships between
children and kindergarten teachers in educational processes (cf. Krenz,
2005a; Schäfer, 2003). Thirdly, it is important to form concrete
skills like the skill to observe, to judge and to question motor development
and motor behaviour in children. Two other skills of practical relevance
are the skill to organise and implement instructed physical education
and daily opportunities for motor activity and the skill to consider motor
activity on all levels of occupational acting in kindergarten (e.g. promotion
of language/mathematic skills; cooperation with parents; integration of
immigrants).
The setting of the focuses and the implementation
of these qualification objectives within the training of kindergarten
teachers depends on the educational level of the training. Furthermore,
the organisational conditions within the training institutions and the
individual conditions of the students and instructors have to be taken
into account when planning a training programme.
Didactics of Education and Training
The didactics of education and training play a
very important role in achieving the above mentioned objectives of qualification.
The main idea of contemporary didactic concepts is that kindergarten teachers
should go through the same learning and teaching experiences that will
later be delivered with the children (cf. Fröhlich-Gildhoff, Kasüschke,
Engel & Kraus-Gruner, 2006). Analogous to the contemporary pedagogic
approaches in terms of childhood education, self education is postulated
for kindergarten teachers too. Hence the following conclusions for the
education and training of kindergarten teachers can be drawn:
The subject of physical education is very suitable
for the implementation of these approaches. Furthermore, motor activity
can be consciously used to improve self-perception, social competencies,
or creativity of kindergarten teachers. The following specifies some examples
of practical implementation of the above mentioned teaching methods within
the physical education training of kindergarten teachers:
Basic Education at Vocational Schools
The basic education of kindergarten teachers takes
place generally at vocational social pedagogic schools. In Germany, these
schools are organised on a federal state level (e.g., for Bavaria) and
not on a national level. Therefore, the following statements may not apply
to all states. Nevertheless, in the majority of cases the aims of “sports
courses” in vocational schools are, besides attainment of work qualification,
is to give students the opportunity to play sports like volleyball or
aerobics for themselves. The “dual function“ of these courses
brings about some of the following problems reported by Krüger (1985):
These problems have long-term consequences concerning
motor activity in day-care facilities. Some studies (cf. Hunger, 2001;
Krüger, 1998) investigated the evolution in practice and drew the
following conclusions. Few kindergarten teachers possess consolidated
knowledge about contemporary early years’ physical education concepts
and consider this knowledge in practice. In contrast, functional orientated
concepts with a strong focus on sports are still wide spread within preschool
education. Those kindergarten teachers who are up to date and focus on
developmentally appropriate physical education approaches acquired their
knowledge mainly from further education. Apparently, the physical education
qualification of kindergarten teachers depends a lot on their own interest
and engagement.
In 2000, reforms of the kindergarten teacher education
were initiated by the Standing Conference of State Ministers of Education
and Culture (Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK)). The KMK laid down a new concept
for the education of kindergarten teachers on vocational schools in its
“Framing Agreements” (Rahmenvereinbarungen). These Agreements
contain, for example, the formulation of key qualifications and learning
fields, a special focus on the relation of learning in school and in practise
and a new overall didactic concept (cf. Ebert, 2000). Despite these overall
improvements, no recommendations were published in terms of physical education.
Furthermore, physical education does not appear within the six named learning
fields. As the detailed definition of the curricula is still dependent
on the competence of states and schools, the learning field of physical
education has the chance, as well as the risk, of being omitted.
Again, there are changes taking place at the moment.
Most of the federal states have developed kindergarten curricula for the
first time within the past three years. Although the field of motor activity
is represented in different quantitative and qualitative ways, there are
a lot of good concepts. Furthermore, these curricula may influence education
in the vocational social pedagogic schools in a positive way in the future.
Further Training
As mentioned before, further education plays a
prominent role within the education system for kindergarten teachers in
Germany. Further education is provided by many different institutions,
e.g., responsible bodies of kindergartens, social pedagogic institutes,
non-profit associations, private schools (see databases Bildungsserver,
Kindergarten-heute, Kursnet for an overview). There are various further
education programmes and concepts which differ in terms of content, quality,
duration and structure. All in all, the situation is very unclear and
it is hard to get an overall impression (cf. Becker, 2000).
Sabo (2002) reports that within the field of health
promotion, about one third of the further education programs refer to
physical education. These programs include some well designed further
education programs (see Table1), which rely on contemporary early years
physical education concepts and have a good didactic concept as well.
There is evidence that these programs are able to change kindergarten
teachers’ attitudes towards physical education and thereby have
a positive influence on the quality and quantity of motor activity in
kindergartens, as shown in some research projects (e.g. Henkel & Heim,
2006; Rumpeltin & Schülert, 1997; Ungerer-Röhrich, 1997;
Winkler et al., 1997). There are, however, some general problems concerning
the further education situation as a whole in Germany (cf. Becker, 2000):
The main problem at the moment might be that it
is left a bit to chance whether a kindergarten teacher, who wishes to
improve his skills, receives a helpful further education program or a
program of low quality. Thus, proposals have been made to build a nationwide
institutional and independent organisation which sets quality standards,
provides information, analyses the existing programs and develops and
offers programs itself (cf. Becker, 2000; Irskens, 2000).
Table 1: Two Examples of Early Years Physical
Education Further Training Programs
New Academic Study Courses
The Robert Bosch foundation recognised these problems within the education
system of kindergarten teachers in Germany and started the programme
“Profis in Kitas (PiK)” (translates to ‘experts in
day-care centres’). The aim of the programme is to initiate development
of nationwide standards for education in vocational schools as well
as for further education and the creation of academic study courses
for kindergarten teachers for the first time (cf. RobertBoschStiftung,
2006). Germany is one of the last countries in Europe in which kindergarten
teachers are not usually trained to academic standards. During recent
years, some colleges (e.g., in Berlin, Bremen, Freiburg) have started
precursor study courses. The PiK programme brings together these colleges
so that they can work together on nationwide standards for these new
academic study courses. Within this working group, a physical education
concept is currently being developed from a contemporary theoretical,
conceptual, and didactic background. Conclusion
Early years training is currently experiencing a period of change in
Germany. This can be seen in the nation-wide development of kindergarten
curricula by all states over the last few years, the implementation
of new didactic concepts in initial and further training, and design
of new academic study courses for the first time. These changes taking
place provide the opportunity to coordinate all levels of education
and training regarding content, structure and didactics in the field
of early years’ education. In addition, these changes allow the
possibility of anchoring motor activity and physical education adequately
into day-care facilities as well as in education and training. Many
steps towards these goals have already been started and will hopefully
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Contact
Annette Payr
University of Konstanz Sports Science Konstanz, Germany Email: Annette.Payr@uni-konstanz.de Prof. Dr. Alexander Woll University of Konstanz Sports Science Konstanz, Germany Email: Alexander.Woll@uni-konstanz.de ![]() http://www.icsspe.org/portal/index.php?w=1&z=5 |